Linda had a good time in London
For those of you who need to raise your blood pressure to
lethal levels every so often in order to stay awake, here is another article on
drug pricing and Big Pharma that should do the trick. There are some deliberate misrepresentations
here (see below), but by and large the thing rings true. Market forces aren’t designed to deal with a
situation like this, and our politicized regulatory system is not making things
much better. We need a re-think, and soon. But, as FaceBookers seem to like to say: LOL.
Where this article asks us to stretch our credulity a bit too
far concerns the implication that academic institutions develop drugs with public
funding and that Big Pharma just manufactures and delivers. In reality – insofar as I understand reality –
many drugs are developed by the drug companies as part of self-supported basic
research, and academic labs normally provide “proof of efficacy” studies only –
that is, they demonstrate that some bio-molecule they have found may do the
trick, whatever that trick is supposed to be.
And then, as often as not, these dedicated academics form a company,
patent the molecule, and promptly sell out to – you guessed it – Big Pharma. How do you think Porsche stays in
business?
So I believe the statements that new drugs may cost several
billions of dollars to bring to market. Part of this is the ponderous, sloth-like
mechanism for gaining FDA approval. But,
yes, my blood pressure does rise to dangerous levels when I learn that more is spent
on advertising than R & D, and that profit margins can be as high as 20 to
30%.
Ask yourself: what
would Bernie do?
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